CAPITALISM VERSUS DEMOCRACY? ALSO BY BORIS FRANKEL Democracy Versus Sustainability Fictions of Sustainability: The Politics of Growth and Post-Capitalist Futures Zombies, Li"iputians and Sadists: The Power of the Living Dead and the Future of Australia When the Boat Comes In: Transforming Australia in the Age of Globalisation From the Prophets Deserts Come: The Stru#le to Reshape Australian Political Culture The Post Industrial Utopians Beyond the State? Dominant Theories and Socialist Strategies Marxian Theories of The State: A Critique of Orthodoxy CAPITALISM VERSUS DEMOCRACY? RETHINKING POLITICS IN THE AGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS BORIS FRANKEL GREENMEADOWS Copyright © Boris Frankel 2020 First published in 2020 by Greenmeadows P.O. Box 128 Elsternwick, Melbourne 3185 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher. A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia. Name: Frankel, Boris, author. Title: Capitalism Versus Democracy? Rethinking Politics in the Age of Environmental Crises/ Boris Frankel. Includes Notes and References and Index. Subjects: 1. Politics of environmental sustainability. 2. Fascism, socialism and democracy. 3. Post-capitalism – post-growth societies. 4. Social reform – alternative policies ISBN: (pbk) 978-0-6483633-4-7 ISBN: (epub) 978-0-6483633-5-4 Typeset in Hoefler Text. Cover Design by Emile Frankel. The publisher has endeavoured to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book were accurate and active at the time of going to press. However, neither the author nor the publisher has responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content has not changed since this book was prepared for publication. Once more with love and gratitude For Julie and Emile CONTENTS Preface ixxi Introduction – Setting the Scene 1 PARTBOOK I I THE DOMINANT PARADIGM OF CAPITALISM VERSUS DEMOCRACY 1. Forget Polanyi! Misreading the Political and Economic 5741 Origins of Our Time 2. Fatalism, Economism and Naturalism: Misunderstanding 9468 Fascism 3. The New Deal’s Controversial Legacy 124 90 4. From Windrip to Trump: The Evolution of ‘American 158 115 Fascism’ 5. Flawed Notions of the ‘Liberal State’ 187 136 6. Abandoning Simplistic Concepts of Socio-Political 230 168 Change PARTBOOK II II SHIFTING PARADIGM: THE LAST GASP OF A PRE-ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS POLITICS 7. Perpetuating Myths about Democratic Control 275201 8. Supranational Capitalism versus National Social 320 234 Democracy 9. Cosmopolitans and Nationalists: A Divided Political 371 271 Culture BOOKPART III III EMERGING NEW PARADIGM: DEMOCRACY VERSUS SUSTAINABILITY Introduction to Book Three 415 305 10. Conflicting Pathways to Post-Carbon Democracy 425 312 11. The Possible Emergence of New Social Change Agents 469 344 12. Political Organisational Challenges 509373 13. ‘Our dreams don’t fit into your ballot box’ 563412 14. National and Local Democracy Versus Global 616450 Sustainability 15. Decommodified Social Alternatives to Welfare State 656479 Capitalism Conclusion 713520 Notes and References 745545 Index 812593 PREFACE This book is part of a larger project on capitalism, democracy and sustain- ability that has preoccupied me in recent years. My previous work Fictions of Sustainability: The Politics of Growth and Post-Capitalist Futures published in 2018, analysed the connection between environmental sustainability issues and technological innovation, economic growth, financialisation and changing relations between advanced capitalist countries and low and middle-income societies. The highly problematic responses of mainstream policy makers and radical technological utopians or greens to these major problems has often been determined by what I call ‘analytical apartheid’. A majority of both pro-market and anti-capitalist political economists ignore environmental issues or treat them as marginal problems. Conversely, many environmentalists display minimal knowledge or interest in political econ- omy. In Capitalism Versus Democracy? I concentrate on political issues and how the dominant paradigm of capitalism in conflict with democracy has changed from the Great Depression and fascism of the 1930s to the Great Financial Crisis and the rise of neo-fascism and Green New Deals in the period from 2008 to the 2020 Pandemic. A variety of Right and Left parties, policy makers and activists continue to share a ‘pre-environmental political consciousness’. This perspective is evident in both anti-democratic authori- tarian regimes in low and middle-income countries and across the political spectrum in representative democracies. Apart from eco-socialists or advocates of degrowth, most of the anti- neoliberal Left or mainstream Greens have a circumscribed environmental consciousness. While supporting the urgent task of preventing climate x Preface breakdown, there is a tendency to either ignore or be unaware of how the larger complex problems surrounding material footprints and ecological sustainability (not just carbon footprints) affect political agendas for the ‘good life’. In fact, the vast majority of public debates on the environment are dominated by endless scientific reports on the merits of renewables versus fossil fuels, economic analyses of the cost of delaying or rapidly imple- menting decarbonisation. These reports and debates often mirror conven- tional political divisions between pro-market business and political forces and anti-capitalist parties and movements over how respective national governments are obstructing or supporting the transition to a post-carbon society. Instead of following this familiar approach to contemporary politics, in Books One and Two I analyse how the dominant paradigm of ‘capitalism versus democracy’ has evolved and outlived its capacity to explain the multiple crises we currently face. Book Three discusses why a rethink of contemporary politics needs also to focus on the multiple aspects of ‘democ- racy versus sustainability’. If the biophysical carrying capacity of the earth is already so seriously impacted by the current size of per capita and national material footprints of affluent populations in OECD countries, how is global equality to be achieved? This problem also affects all proposals for post-capi- talist societies. Without a fundamental reconfiguring of the utopian notions of a high-tech, affluent post-carbon or post-capitalist society, we will continue to see profound domestic and global material and socio-political inequalities continue in the future. For those who do not wish to read the larger thesis presented in this book, I have also written a modified version of Book Three which is published under the title Democracy Versus Sustainability. Completing this project during a global Pandemic has been a mixed expe- rience. Observing the daily casualty rate and scale of unnecessary deaths across the world (more than one million to date and over 34 million reported cases) warrants the International Court of Justice in The Hague to initiate proceedings against a new category of criminals, the Covid-19 criminals. From the US, Brazil and India, to Mexico, the UK and other countries, these Right-wing elected political leaders have wilfully contributed to the enor- mous death rates and serious ongoing illness of millions of people. They have either failed to act in time, dismissed the seriousness of the disease or delib- erately run-down health care and aged-care resources prior to the Pandemic with their pro-market attacks on necessary health and social services. Of course, if there is any justice in the world, then the International Court of Justice would also prepare proceedings against a wider range of leaders who Preface xi are wilfully ignoring or delaying dealing with the climate emergency – a global policy failure that unless quickly remedied will almost certainly result in untold millions of deaths in coming decades to human and non-human species. In countries with authoritarian governments, the public are severely constrained in their ability to act. However, in so-called democracies, the failure to respond adequately to the twin crises of the Pandemic and climate breakdown are occurring under the watchful or indifferent eyes of polarised electorates and governments that are sleepwalking towards disaster. On the positive side, like many writers, Covid-19 has been an unexpected blessing in that it has provided the enforced isolation that has enabled me to complete this book. I am grateful to the many authors whose work has enriched my understanding of socio-political and environmental issues. I particularly thank Director Brendan Gleeson and all the engaged colleagues at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute (MSSI), University of Melbourne for their support in providing a congenial and stimulating home over the past several years while working on this project. Together with Sam Alexander, I have organised MSSI’s Political Economy of Sustainability group over the past few years. I thank Sam and the many other participants for the spirited discussion of topics that have helped shape and clarify aspects of this book. Finally, once again, my love and deepest appreciation for her indispens- able and complete everyday support goes to Julie Stephens. She has improved the final draft by her many socio-cultural